Secrets of the Warehouse

TREASURE

The group fought off the reinforcements and then discovered a secret passage leading beneath the warehouse. In a cell, beaten and bloody was the real High Priest Durkik. Once freed, he thanked them and then explained what he thinks Captain Zithiruun is really after.

After having defeated the thugs in the warehouse in Overlook, the Outsiders were searching through the crates piled around the warehouse. Damaia had just climbed up onto the catwalk to take a look around from above, when suddenly a new set of attackers dropped in through the skylights, repelling down ropes to get the drop on the group in the warehouse. This group was led by the doppelganager who had been posing as High Priest Durkik Forgeheart, now in human form and was accompanied by Priestess Volovryn, who was supposed to be unconscious at the Temple of Kelemvor. Vigorously the battle was renewed in the warehouse as the shapeshifter used his abilities to sneak up on Rinya, but then, with a charge, Timur tackled him and they both fell off the catwalk. The Paladin used his Catstep boots to land on his feet, but the doppelganger wasn’t so lucky. Between his glowing blade and Rinya’s lightning arrows, he went down.

The possessed Priestess had a mad-on for Searynox, who had knocked her out, and she drop-thrust her sword down onto the Dragonborn, and then continued to attack him from the floor. They both immobilized eath other and exchanged blows until the Cleric was the only one left standing. Damaia and Vylify finished off the thugs attacking them from all around the room until this second wave of attackers had all fallen.

While they were fighting, the two holy warriors had a huge disagreement about their holy powers. Tim claimed that his sword’s light was brighter because it “ignited” with holy light. Seaynox disagreed because his weapon “gleamed” with his God’s holy power. Tim exclaimed that his sunrod gave off more like than his glimmering weapon. The dragonborn argued that ignite was a brief explosion of light and then it quickly dimmed. The rest of the group rolled their eyes while imagining Kelemvor and Tempus fighting over the power of their Divine Light

When they were able to finish searching the warehouse, they found plenty of stolen goods, weapons which looked to have been taken from Sarshan’s warehouses, illegal beverages and substances all ready to be shipped. While no one was looking Vylify wanted to pick up some things for himself, but he was caught by Elarinya, who gave him a stern look and made him put things back. The Artificer then went upstairs to check on their stirring comrade, Correl, and before he could awaken fully, he briefly considered rifling through his pcckets, but then thought better of it. Searynox took this time to touch the Shapeshifter to find out information about him through his Ritual. He learned that this doppelganger had already been in place during their first visit to Overlook and had been the Durkik that he’d spoken to. The Dragonborn also learned that the fake Durkik had started repairs on the other temple to get many followers out of the Stone Anvil so that he could search for something in secret.

Timur goes into the secret passage to report his findings, but his voice is lost on those above.

On the far Western side of the room, Rinya had knocked over some crates and found a locked door leading down into the basement. Once the lock had been picked, the group decended into a tight stone hallway which ended at a metal door with a barred window looking in. The Eladrin crept up and found a dwarf who looked like High-Priest Durkik chained to the far wall, bruised and bloody. He snuck back and the group wondered if they could really trust this to be the real High Priest or was it another trap to trick them? The Kalashtar volunteered to take a look into his mind to verify things. For the first time in his life, he was able to sneak up to the door stealthily and he probed the dwarf’s mind and found that this was indeed the real thing. He dared to speak to the Priest’s mind, telling him that they were there to free him. The Dwarf’s eyes shot open and he warned the group not to touch the door or the traps would kill him. While Rinya returned upstairs to guard their backs, Vylify inspected the door closer and found that indeed there were 3 traps which were all set to kill the Dwarf should anyone try to rescue him. He pulled out his thief tools and set to work on the two traps that could be disabled from outside the door and then Fey Stepped into the room to disable the last trap. Once he was free, the Cleric healed the Dwarf to get him back on his feet. The real Durkik thanked the group for saving him, they were the answer to every prayer that he’d offered to Moradin, but he was also sad to inform them that he didn’t have very good news for them. The last three months he’d been imprisoned and tortured, but he’d begun to piece together what General Zithiruun was after. He suggested that they walk as they talked because they didn’t have much time. Before they left the warehouse, Searynox offered the Dwarf a cloak to help hide his identity. Tim suggested that they should send a message to Councilor Morgoff Stonefist to let him know what was going on, so they summonded the Hawk using the figurine and sent it off with a message. By the time they were ready to leave, Correl was groggy, but he was on his feet.

Durkik knew the city well and led them down side streets and shortcuts they hadn’t known existed. As they walked he told them the story of the Mountainroot Temple, it’s portal to the Astral Sea, and it’s destruction. He explained how a few decades ago a group had returned to the Temple hoping to rebuild it, but he hadn’t heard anything more from them. As the High Priest he knew of the temple, but he had taken vows never to enter the Sepluchre leading to the temple. Zithiruun was trying to get information from him on the defenses of the temple and the general layout, something Priest Forgeheart couldn’t given him even if he’d wanted to. A few days ago, word had come back that the entrance to the temple had been found and Zithiruun himself had stormed off claiming that “he’d figure this out for himself, but to keep trying to get information out of Durkik.” The High Priest didn’t know what the General was truly after, but he asked the Outsiders if they would enter the temple and find out? He also asked, while they were there, if they could try to locate a powerful spiritual book called the Incunabulum Primeval? He would be willing to pay the group 5000 gold from the temple coffers for this. While they were walking the group found it hard to understand a dwarf who was that sober, so Damaia shared some from her flask with him.

By this time, the group had arrived in Caer Overlook, and the High Priest led them to a secret entrance into the Stone Anvil. Down dusty stairs, along long unused halls he led them until they came to a small room that must have once been used by scribes of old with a marble table to one side and a wall full of shelves covered in inch-thick dusty scrolls and books. Durkik fumbled amongst the scrolls until he found the switch he was looking for and the wall slid back to reveal a huge sepulchre. The group decided that they needed rest before tackling this.

As promised, Durkik then led the group down to some small sleeping cubicles. The mages could tell that the rooms had been ensorcelled to help those staying in them rest better, faster. After using his clerical powers to conjure some food, he dug out a dusty old keg to share with the Warlock to repay her for sharing her alcohol with him. The group decided that, for now, it would be best if the temple didn’t know that the real Durkik had returned… just in case.

The group got a full nights rest in about 4 hours and then they were up and raring to go. After a light meal Durkik led them back to the selpuchre and let them in through the secret door, wishing them luck and shutting the passageway behind them. At the far end of the chamber, a bright silver filigree of unimaginable complexity bulged from the wall. It showed a scene of Moradin hard at work at his forge. Four statues—two flanking the filigree, two flanking the entrance—showed Moradin with a skeletal hand on his shoulder holding Kelemvor’s Scales of Justice perched on his shoulders. Perhaps these were meant to honor the god of the Dead, who watched over even Moradin’s dead?

As the group approached the silver filigree, the image suddenly bent as the face of Moradin turned toward them and spoke in a voice of rending metal. “Who would step through the portal to the heart of Moradin’s worship must first prove he understands Moradin in his own heart. Think you carefully on Moradin’s precepts, his teachings, his actions, and his favored disciples. Then speak unto me a parable, a tale of Moradin, not that you have learned from his texts, but that you have created yourself. Let it show your understanding of his words and his ways, and you may pass.” The Outsiders looked at each other, perplexed.